History Today

The building in which I work has a chequered past. One section was once a laboratory of physical chemistry; another, the old Cambridge Free School, whose hall still sports a splendid hammer-beam roof.

Readers of Zuleika Dobson will recall the occasion when Mr Pedby, the Junior Fellow, read grace. As they listened to the false quantities of his Latin, the occupants of the high table experienced an unusual pleasure. They knew that they were present at an occasion which was to become an Oxford Legend.

War is prominent among the forms of human experience that have most readily stimulated poetry. In combat both mind and body strain at the end of their tether.

Peter Burke considers the various works dealing with the Renaissance

The British Empire was the largest in the history of the world. Brian Lapping explains how the end of that Empire was charted for television.

At the Boston Tea Party the Americans not only flouted the unpopular tax laws on tea imposed on the colony, they also retrieved the image of the Mohawk from the hands of British cartoonists and reinstated him as the symbol of American liberty.

A.J.G.Cummings explores Scotland's links with Europe from 1600-1800.

Six leading historians of science define their discipline.

Low birth rates have obsessed the French since their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, argues Richard Tomlinson.

What made for a good medieval king? Understanding Richard I – better known as Richard the Lionheart – is a good place to start.